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# Founder's log: hiring, new biz, darlings, and coffee wandering
- URL: https://www.howardgray.net/founders-log-hiring-new-biz-darlings-and-coffee-wandering/
- Published: 2026-09-09T12:47:31.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-09T12:47:30.000Z
- Description: Four observations from running a small indie studio
- Author: Howard Gray
- Tags: Howard's Riffs

I am the founder of a small independent studio. Here’s a bit of what I’ve learned recently.

We build games and workshops for the work that doesn't come with a playbook. I write these riffs every so often. Maybe this is useful to someone doing something similar. Four things this time out:

### Hiring.

Fascinating, challenging, and it eats the week. Role specs are hard to pin down: they feel wriggly, slippery, elusive. What’s possible now keeps shifting and we look for unusual skill stacks that are tricky to assess on paper or even a portfolio. As we are small, even a single freelance hire comes with high stakes. Hiring requires even more of my brainbox than I anticipated.

### New business.

Few talk about this part honestly. Every route seems to loop back to a referral. Cold outreach, content, events - all of it is a longer way round to somebody saying your name when you’re not there. Not true of every business, but of many (and maybe an increasing number?) New business is harder still when your contact list is eclectic rather than ten years deep in one sector. Quick sample of mine: music agent, conservation scientist, cyber security expert, chef-restaurateur. Great people, but the new biz pipeline says nein, danke.

### Killing things for the wrong reason.

We went back through the archive and found three really good immersive scenarios buried because the sessions they sat inside didn't go so well. The design wasn't the problem. The room was.  
Don’t kill your darlings too early. I received this exact feedback during a team co-location earlier this summer, and six weeks later… hey presto. Duly noted.

### Walking around.

On Friday I had 20 mins to kill. I stopped in at a random coffee shop. Two guys were outside, chatting about what I think was an AI product for restaurant architecture. One doing all the talking, bouncing around product demos, the other nodding politely but with heavy questions on his mind. Both of them could walk into one of our scenarios tomorrow, as written. I’ve already done a one page treatment. People, places, the world. It’s good to walk around.

That’s all for now. If any of this has piqued your interest feel free to ask questions - I’m happy to share more. Our company is [Wavetable](https://www.wavetable.net/?ref=howardgray.net), btw.